PROBABILISTIC FORMULATION FOR THE ANALYSIS OF BRIDGE DECKS

WITH IRREGULAR PAVEMENT SURFACE

J. G, S. Silva, J. L. Roehl
Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro

INTRODUCTION
Generally, the analysis of bridge decks with irregular pavement profiles considers the surface
roughness as a second order weakly stationary random process defined by a profile spectral density.
In sequence, one approximates the irregularity surface by a gaussian ergodic harmonic series and
generates a couple of profiles to be the input of a time domain analysis. The moving load is assumed
to be a group of vehicles, no larger than three, with two or more axles, [ 1, 2 ].
One may argue at least three points concerning this practice:
-The number of vehicles crossing the bridge should be larger; in effect, it might simulate a situation in
which the cars completely load the deck.
-The focal point in the analysis should be the maximum bridge response values occurring in a
permanent phase of the system response, mainly if the analyst concern is the material fatigue
behavior.
-It would also be convenient to avoid the generation of irregularity profiles, from the pavement surface
spectral density, followed by a time domain analysis. This is a return to a kind of statistical approach.
One might prefer a full probabilistic formulation in the frequency domain instead.
In the following, an analysis methodology is presented which believes to carry the main improvements
below:
- Consideration of a vehicle-bridge mathematical model which includes the interaction between their
dynamical properties;
- The moving load is taken as an infinite series of vehicles, regularly spaced and moving at constant
velocity, to allow the observation of the steady-state response of the structure;
- Use of a frequency domain transfer on the pavement spectral densities, to obtain directly the bridge
response spectral densities , followed by an integration of these functions over a suitable frequency
band to get the mean square values of the bridge response quantities.
One includes in the full report a complete description of the analysis methodology and its
implementation, as well as a series of results taken from a box girder bridge.

METHODS
The mathematical model simulates the bridge structure and the vehicle series as a system, the
vehicle-bridge system. Consequently, its frequencies are modified by the vehicle properties and the
vehicle-bridge interaction force incorporates the bridge flexibility influence [ 3 ].
The vehicle model with one axle, two masses and two translational degrees of freedom is indicated for
this kind of study, Figure 1 [ 4 ].

v1
ms

k vs c vs

v2
mns

k vp cvp
vb

Figure 1. Vehicle Model [ 4 ]

The bridge deck follows a straight beam model made discrete by finite elements and nodal
concentrated masses, with vertical translations and in-plane rotations as degrees of freedom,
Figure 2. Rotatory inertia and shear deformations are not considered.

v1
ms

v2 vn-1 vn
m ns
v4
 m3 m4 mn-1 m r
1 
2  r-1 n

Figure 2. Vehicle-Bridge Model [3]

The vehicle-bridge system matrices in the equations of motion are organized keeping the vehicle
displacements in the first positions of the corresponding vector to facilitate the updating of these
matrices.
The vehicle column crosses the bridge with constant velocity under a step by step progression. At
every new step the stiffness and damping matrices would change. To reduce the computational effort
these matrices are updated only once for each finite beam element, without significant modification in
the solution [ 3 ]. So working, and considering the vehicle spacing equal to an integer multiple of the
beam element length, the matrices would not change  at all. One follows to derive the spectral density
matrix, [FF ()], of the interaction force process , F(t) .
In this way, one uses a proportional damping matrix , including a submatrix related to the vehicle
degrees of freedom and another to the bridge nodal velocities. The pavement roughness, v b ( x) , is
described by a weakly stationary random process which spectral density follows the well-known
exponential function [ 5 ]:

2

v b v b ( )  (0 )  
 0 

in which (0 ) is the roughness amplitude coefficient,  is the wave number and  0 is the basic
frequency. The roughness effect is introduced in the motion  equations considering that, for the
vehicle, it acts as a base motion. The interaction force vector , f ( t ), is then written:

  
 b  [K* ] e vb
f ( t ) = [C] e v


where [C] and [K* ] are the damping and stiffness condensed matrices, respectively, e is the unit
 b is the roughness profile first time derivative.
vector and v
Next, one uses the Wiener - Kintchine theorem to write:

 
[ FF ( )]  [C][T][C][ v b v b ( )]  [C][T][K * ]  [ K * ][T][C] [ v b v b ( )] 

 [ K * ][T][K * ][ v b v b ( )]

where: [v b v b ],[v b v b ] are spectral density matrices of derivated processes

 
[T]  e. eT is a transformation matrix


The spectral density matrix, [vv ()] , of the response displacement process, V ( t ), is then
obtained by the transformation:

[ VV ( )]  [ H( )][ FF ( )][ H *T ( )]

where: [H()] is the condensed form of the frequency response matrix of the vehicle-
-bridge system and [H*T ()] is the transpose conjugated matrix

Inside the context of the same theorem one expresses the second order moments of the response
displacements of the vehicle-bridge system as:

 [VV ()] d


[E{ V2 ( t )}] 

To keep these response quantities in the same magnitude of those obtained by a time domain
approach with the same structural model [ 6 ] , this last integration has to be taken only over a narrow
band of the spectrum. The criteria to establish this band width and its locations are also proposed.
From this point on, the second order moments of the other response quantities are reached by similar
and suitable procedures.

RESULTS
Several spans and support arrangements for a highway bridge with box girder cross section are
studied - one to three span bridges with span lengths from 24 to 36m.
The moving load is an infinite series of 450 kN vehicles with first and second natural frequencies of
3Hz and 20Hz, respectively, and first mode damped to 0.1 of the critical damping.
The results come up very well adjusted to those of the previous study mentioned above [ 6 ].

REFERENCES
1- Sedlacek, G.; Drosner, St., Dynamik bei Brücken, Baustatik Baupraxis, Universität Hannover, 1990.
2- Wang, T. L.; Huang, D. and Shahawi, M., Dynamic Response of Multigirder Bridges, ASCE. J.
Struc. Engr., vol. 118, 1992, pp. 2222 - 2238.
3- Carneiro, R., Roehl, J. L., A Model for the Analysis of Moving Load Effects on Highway Bridges
Girders, RBCM. J. of the Braz. Soc. of Mech. Sc., vol XII, nr 1, 1990, pp 29-44.
4- Ferreira, K. I. I., Avaliação do Critério para Cálculo dos Efeitos das Cargas Móveis em Pontes
Rodoviárias, Dissertação , Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, 1991.
5- Braun, H., Untersuchungen von Fahrbahnunebenheiten und Anwendungen der Ergebnisse,
Dissertation, T U Braunschweig, 1969.
6- Silva, J.G.S., Roehl, J.L., Dynamical Analysis of Bridge Decks with Irregular Pavement Surface
Defined by a Profile Spectral Density, XVII CILAMCE, University of Padova, 1996